


A Fool's Crown

by InkedConstellations



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Allen isn't really here, Being Considerate, Even though the story is about him, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, It's kind of just all Kanda, Kanda pretends not to care but he does, Lies, Masks, Rivalry, Tsunderes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 01:39:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4900615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkedConstellations/pseuds/InkedConstellations
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the moment Allen Walker entered the order, Kanda took him for a fool. One full of tricks, but a fool nonetheless.<br/>And a card shark's greatest failure is when his tricks run out...<br/>Hopefully, thanks to Kanda, Walker could play the Ace rather than the Joker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fool's Crown

**Author's Note:**

> Warning, slight language.
> 
> A short idea that just sort of sprouted, I'm not sure why. I hope you enjoy.

From the moment Kanda had met Allen Walker, the boy was wearing a mask. That fake smile, the layers upon layers of cheer written in the lines of his cheeks and the curve of his lips. Kanda had immediately hated him. Not only was the idiot beansprout cursed, he didn't even seem to care. A walking trouble magnet, old man hair and pearly white grin a beacon any Akuma could see from miles away. No wonder their first mission together had gone wrong. It was all that Beansprout's fault.

Kanda knew from the very beginning, even before he watched the boy cry over the hollowed body of an empty doll in Mater, that Walker was fucked in the head. Everyone else in the Order bought his sanity, but not Kanda. With that shit about turning his own dad into an Akuma and killing him for a second time, it would be a miracle if he didn't have issues. God knew Kanda didn't believe in miracles, and even the generally stoic raven-haired man couldn't suppress a shudder at the thought of being raised by Cross Marian, of all men. Tiedoll had been bad enough, and he actually cared, in his own, weepy, terribly inconvenient way. Even if Kanda couldn't fight his way through the twisted expression Walker called a smile to find the real emotion he kept hidden, he knew every expression on that boy was a lie. And Kanda hated liars far more than he hated curses. 

Perhaps this was partly why the two of them couldn't seem to get along. Respect was no problem. Beansprout admittedly had some skills, and Kanda enjoyed sparring with him, loved the feeling of being able to go all out. To crash up against Walker's Innocence with all his might and know the other boy wouldn't break. To know he could touch someone without breaking them. In an odd way, the rough way their personalities and their bodies clashed was relaxing for Kanda. They might have coexisted, if it weren't for that damn smile.

Kanda never understood it. How Walker bottled everything inside him and made it disappear. The Beansprout was a walking time bomb, so many fears and angers tucked away that when he opened the tap a flood would come out. It was dangerous. And Kanda refused to work with anyone who was a danger to him or to himself. If anyone managed to get a half-way straight answer from the swordsman, he would claim that's why he fought with Allen so often. Every boiled kettle needs to blow off steam before it shatters. But that would give the impression that he cared, which Kanda most certainly did not, most certainly would not ever do.

Not even if he sometimes gave a flash of a smile that, while not quite so innocent, especially surrounded by naked men and a pile of cards, was genuine.

Not even if, every once in a while, Walker would laugh at Timcampy burrowing in his hair and Kanda's ears were caught by how light he sounded.

From the moment Kanda had met him, Allen Walker wore a mask. He held a deck of cards with a million different faces, cheating with every breath. A genuine card shark. It wasn't often that hand was empty, stripped of any tricks or cover-ups. It wasn't often that Allen Walker's mask slipped, leaving his face empty, hollow. Just like that doll he had cried over so stupidly in Mater. In those moments of silence, glimpsed in hallways when they were alone and in Walker's reflection as he stared out the train window when missions went wrong, the Beansprout's face was so broken, so lonely, that Kanda found himself hating this real face even more than the mask.

So much so, that he would seize upon the smallest things to jolt Walker out of his daze and into any other pretense. Usually irritation; Kanda was too rough to know how to comfort Walker any way but through fighting.

At least when upset, or playing coy, or being irritating as hell, Walker was alive. And Kanda secretly smiled every time his Beansprout did...though he told himself it was only because he was glad to avoid that empty look. 


End file.
